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Western Digital 96-Layer 3D NAND Recognized As ‘Best Of Show’ At The Flash Memory Summit

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC), a global data storage technology and solutions leader, today announced that it has received the Flash Memory Summit ‘Best of Show’ award for the company’s BiCS4 technology, the world’s first 3D NAND technology with 96 layers of vertical storage capability. The honor, received in the “Technology” category, recognizes innovations that will “change the way flash memory works and is used in products”. The recipients of this award are distinguished by significant differentiation of their intellectual property and patents from competing technologies in the flash memory industry.

“Our successful development of the world’s first 96-layer 3D NAND technology underscores Western Digital’s ongoing leadership in NAND flash and is a major milestone for continued NAND flash scaling,” said Jian Chen, senior vice president of memory technology at Western Digital. “BiCS4 provides superior capacity, density, performance and reliability for customers across a broad range of applications and allows us to keep pace with the escalating storage requirements of today’s data-centric world.”

“3D NAND is taking the market by storm, addressing a full range of end markets including consumer, mobile, computing and data center,” said Jay Kramer, chairman of the Flash Memory Summit Awards Program and president of Network Storage Advisors, Inc. “We are proud to recognize Western Digital’s 96 Layer 3D NAND BiCS4 for its innovation as the industry’s first 3D NAND technology with 96 layers of vertical storage capability. The 96 layers will enable new levels of storage capacity, density, performance and reliability to meet the future application needs of the marketplace.”

The presentation of the Flash Memory Summit award highlights the culmination of a strong presence at the Flash Memory Summit 2017 this week, including a keynote presentation by Western Digital Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Martin Fink entitled, “Toward a Memory-centric Architecture.” Fink addressed how today’s Big Data and Fast Data applications are driving the need for purpose-built, data-centric compute architectures based on open standards and industry-wide innovation. Other company highlights at the show included demonstration of the company’s first SSD based on X4 technology, recognition by IT Brand Pulse in their “PCIe NVMe Card – SSD” awards category and numerous Western Digital speakers and managed sessions on a wide range of topics including NVMe, maximizing SSD performance for critical applications and persistent memory.

About Western Digital
Western Digital is an industry-leading provider of storage technologies and solutions that enable people to create, leverage, experience and preserve data. The company addresses ever-changing market needs by providing a full portfolio of compelling, high-quality storage solutions with customer-focused innovation, high efficiency, flexibility and speed. Our products are marketed under the HGST, SanDisk and WD brands to OEMs, distributors, resellers, cloud infrastructure providers and consumers. Financial and investor information is available on the company's Investor Relations website at investor.wdc.com

Western Digital Technologies, Inc. is the seller of record and licensee in the Americas of SanDisk® products.

Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, including statements concerning our 3D NAND technology, including its capacity, performance and capabilities, our product development efforts, market positioning, growth opportunities and market trends. There are a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate including, among others: uncertainties with respect to the company's business ventures with our joint venture partner; volatility in global economic conditions; business conditions and growth in the storage ecosystem; impact of competitive products and pricing; market acceptance and cost of commodity materials and specialized product components; actions by competitors; unexpected advances in competing technologies; our development and introduction of products based on new technologies and expansion into new data storage markets; risks associated with acquisitions, mergers and joint ventures; difficulties or delays in manufacturing; and other risks and uncertainties listed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including the company's Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on May 8, 2017, to which your attention is directed. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof, and the company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.